Rowell Fund for Tibet announces grants to projects on Tibetan environment, education and history

Tesi Environmental Awareness Movement hosted an eco-forum with the funds they received last year.

This year, they plan to continue their environmental outreach among the monastic community.

The Rowell Fund for Tibet’s Board of Advisors has decided to award funds for 2011 to projects that deal with Tibetan education, culture, environment and history. The Fund will award $35,000 (which is a reduction from the overall amount given last year) to applicants for projects throughout Asia in memory of lifelong Tibet supporters, Galen and Barbara Rowell, who died in a plane crash in 2002.

The Fund received over 40 applications from Tibetans in Tibet and outside and the selected projects will receive grants ranging from $2,500 to $7,000.

As avid mountaineers and outdoor photographers, Galen and Barbara Rowell helped bring Tibet and the Himalayas into the public eye. Their fund continues this legacy, providing small grants to Tibetan writers, academics, photographers, and conservationists. To learn more about Galen and Barbara Rowell and the background of the Rowell Fund, click here.

Some of this year’s grant recipients include:*

Saten Foundation for education and youth development projects in the Tibetan settlements in Bylakuppe, South India. ($4,000)

The Tibet Oral History Project to record and translate the personal histories of Tibetan elders in Tibetan settlements. ($5,000) www.tibetoralhistory.org

*Not all projects have been listed as some of the recipients have requested confidentiality.

ICT and the Rowell Fund wish to congratulate last year’s grant recipients, whose final written reports provided concrete evidence of impact the Rowell Fund continues to have among Tibetan communities. Past recipients have included Tibetans who have undertaken photography, film making and related projects that have enriched the Tibetan society. The Advisory Board of the Fund is made up of friends and family of Galen & Barbara, includes John Ackerly, Conrad Anker, David Breashears, Jimmy Chin, Bob and Beth Cushman, John Jancik and Terri Baker, Bob Palais, Tony Rowell and Ray and Nicole Rowell Ryan. The Fund is managed by the International Campaign for Tibet.